Finally, a film that captures the very heart of America — hope, courage, and the belief that anyone, regardless of background or circumstance, can achieve the American Dream.

Comeback, a powerful mini series by Opportunity Lives, explores the lives of a handful of individuals who overcame adversity to live a life they never dreamed possible.

The teaser for the first episode is being released tomorrow and the full series will be available for viewing on Opportunity Lives’ website March 17.

Helping individuals better themselves, operating out of love and compassion, and instilling in them a sense of self worth is how we begin to repair America’s cultural wounds; it’s how communities who’ve struggled with poverty and violence climb out of a seemingly endless destructive cycle.

While Comeback is not a political film, it’s vital watching for anyone involved in politics, grassroots work, or interested in making a tangible difference in the lives of those most in need.

John Hart, Editor-in-Chief of Opportunity Lives had this to say about Comeback:

Opportunity Lives is proud to release the trailer for an extraordinary new seven-part miniseries called “Comeback” that tells inspiring stories of real-life Americans overcoming adversity in our nation’s cities and communities. The complete series will be available on March 17.

At OL, we’re focused on solutions and “what works.” That’s what Comeback is about. The film, which is a feature-length documentary from start to finish, highlights what’s working in some of our nation’s most troubled communities. What works is people caring for people one-on-one and walking with them through their journey of redemption and restoration.

Over the course of the next few days we’ll be introducing you to some of those people. You’ll meet men like Greg Bradford who overcame addiction with the help of his friend and mentor Paul Grodell (both featured in the above poster). You’ll meet more people like Greg and Paul as we release trailers for each episode until the full series is available on March 17.

…The trailer concludes with this important – and provocative – question and comment from Woodson:

“What do you think is the answer to poverty? Well let me show you what I saw.”

OL is honored to show you these stories and grapple with a question that affects all of us, regardless of where we live.

You figure out what works by trying a thousand different experiments with many thousand different people, and then replicating what works, to see if the solution is broadly applicable.
This can actually work very quickly to resolve enormous problems.

Imposing top-down, nationwide solutions to difficult, complicated problems short-circuits the effective process by drastically reducing the number of experiments and blunting the creativity of otherwise innovative people. It also broadly applies unproven, uninformed, unpolished theories.

Precisely. The problem with “one-size-fits-all” solutions, is that they never fit any particular size very well.

It’s like clothing. The best are tailored, which will fit one person perfectly, a few people marginally well, and nobody else. The next best are made for a certain size and body type, and will fit most people of that size and body type well enough, but nobody else. The next are size-only, which will fit all but the most extreme variations in body type, but will be loose in some places and tight in others. The worst are one-size-fits-all, which anyone can wear, but don’t fit quite right or look particularly good on anyone.

Top-down, nation-wide government solutions are all one-size-fits-all. Pres. 0bama said himself, “I know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne,” but you wouldn’t be able to tell from his policies or programs.